Rock Band (Video Game)
Rock Band is a 2007 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first game of the Rock Band series of video games. Gameplay Rock Band is a music rhythm game where up to four players can play along with the music using a guitar peripheral, drums peripheral, or USB microphone. All players must "play" their instrument in time with the music in order to clear a song. The game displays gems on a scrolling highway, which indicate what buttons to press once they reach the bottom of the screen. Players earn points every time they successfully hit a gem, gaining or losing multipliers as their streak increases or breaks. An overdrive meter can be charged by playing certain sections of the song perfectly. Once activated, overdrive doubles the current multiplier. Each player chooses their own difficulty level at which to play at (easy, medium, hard, and expert). A meter keeps track of the performance, and moves up and down depending on how well the players are performing. If a player misses too many gems, that player fails out, and drains the meter over time. Should the meter get to zero, the song has been failed. If a player has overdrive charged, the player may use it to rescue another player who has failed out. Development Harmonix had previously been in charge of developing the Guitar Hero series, while RedOctane developed the guitar peripherals and owned the rights to the series. In June 2006, Activision purchased RedOctane, and later in September of the same year, Harmonix was purchased by MTV Games. This meant that Harmonix could no longer develop for the Guitar Hero series. As a result of these purchases, Harmonix decided to develop Rock Band instead. Designed as a successor to Guitar Hero, Rock Band ''not only improved on the guitar gameplay, but also introduced drums and vocals into the mix, allowing for a full band experience. The game was first announced on April 1st, 2007, and was later shown at E3 2007 during Microsoft's press conference. During an on-stage demonstration, Microsoft executive Peter Moore paused the game twice by accidentally hitting the Xbox guide button. Soundtrack Rock Band's main setlist includes 45 songs that feature many of rock's most influential bands from the last 50 years. Unlike the ''Guitar Hero games, Harmonix had to consider the entire band when building the soundtrack. They intentionally selected songs that not only worked well for guitar, bass, and drums gameplay, but were also recognizable so that vocalists could have an easier time getting into the game. Main Setlist * Denotes cover version Bonus Songs In addition to the main setlist, there are an additional 13 bonus songs available in the game, most of which are either Harmonix bands or Boston area bands. *''Labeled as VAGIANT in ''Rock Band Wii Version The Wii version of the game included 5 additional songs, all of which were originally DLC for the 360 and PS3 versions of the game. European Version The European version of the game also included 9 additional songs, all of which are from European bands. They were later made as DLC for everyone on May 20th, 2008. Category:Video Game